Consumerism

Researchers find one in four people grapple with compulsive overspending during the holiday season. An overwhelming 56% of respondents feel pressured to spend money during the holidays, with family emerging as the primary source of financial strain.

More than 75% of respondents experience what researchers call “money wounds” — emotional difficulties stemming from financial challenges that cut to the core of personal well-being.

The study reveals that low self-esteem, compulsive overspending, and shame from past financial mistakes emerge as the most common “money wounds.” The financial stress takes a significant emotional toll. 68% of those experiencing money wounds report that these challenges hold them back from feeling fulfilled and successful.

Many of those with money wounds admit to avoiding their financial troubles during the holidays. This avoidance manifests in various ways: refrain from buying gifts (37%), declining party invitations (33%), and avoid checking their bank account balances (29%).

Perhaps most heartbreaking is the social isolation that follows. 42% of respondents say they’ll become distant from others to avoid experiencing spending pressure. This distancing comes at an emotional cost, with participants reporting feelings of shame, guilt, and loneliness.

There is a glimmer of hope. 61% of respondents are actively trying to embrace the philosophy that “money and spending don’t equal happiness.” However, the road to recovery is long. On average, respondents believe it takes six years for a money wound to heal. More sobering still, many don’t believe financial trauma ever completely resolves.

As the holiday season approaches, the serves as a powerful reminder of the emotional complexity behind financial stress, urging compassion, understanding, and support for those struggling with money-related challenges.

This holiday season, take a moment to ask yourself, “Does this person really want what I’m buying them?” A new survey finds the answer is likely no! Researchers have found that more than half of Americans (53%) will receive a gift they don’t want.

It turns out that everyday Americans are throwing away tons of money. According to a survey, unwanted presents will reach an all-time high in both volume and cost this year, with an estimated $10.1 billion being spent on gifts headed for the regifting pile.

Overall, the annual holiday spending forecast finds that roughly 140 million Americans will receive at least one unwanted present. Shockingly, one in 20 people expect to receive at least five gifts they won’t want to keep. The average cost of these unwanted items is expected to rise to $72 this holiday season, up from $66 last year. That represents a billion-dollar surge in wasteful holiday spending.

Saying “you shouldn’t have…” might be a more truthful statement than ever when it comes to certain gift ideas. Topping the unwanted gift list are:

Clothing and accessories (43%)
Household items (33%)
Cosmetics and fragrances (26%)
Technology gifts (25%)

So, what happens to all these well-intentioned but unwanted presents?

Regifting is the most popular solution (39%)
Return the item to the store to exchange for something else (32%)
Sell the unwanted gift (27%)

So, if you’re still looking for last-minute gifts this holiday season, choose wisely. There’s a very good chance the person you’re buying for won’t like your choices anyway.

Possible Preaching Angle:
You can use this story to remind people that the only gift that is universally appropriate in the gift of God’s Son. But in the same way, many people reject this costly gift as unnecessary and unwanted (John 1:11-12).

The longer the internet lives, the more inescapable a certain trend becomes: the performance of grief. That is, when someone on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, exhibits a hardship for audience consumption. At The Atlantic, Maytal Eyal has an interesting appraisal:

People post videos of themselves crying (or trying not to). Some of these videos moody music; many rack up hundreds of thousands of views. … Influencers and celebrities strip down to what can seem like the rawest version of themselves, selling the promise of “real” emotional connection—and, not infrequently, products or their personal brand.

The weepy confessions are, ostensibly, gestures toward intimacy. They’re meant to inspire empathy, to reassure viewers that influencers are just like them. But in fact, they’re exercises in what I’ve come to call “McVulnerability,” a synthetic version of vulnerability akin to fast food: mass-produced, sometimes tasty, but lacking in sustenance. True vulnerability can foster emotional closeness. McVulnerability offers only an illusion of it.

In my years as a therapist, I’ve seen a trend among some of my younger clients: They prefer the controlled environment of the internet — the polish of YouTube, the ephemeral nature of TikTok — to the tender awkwardness of making new friends. Instead of reaching out to a peer, they’ll turn to the comfort of their phone and spend time with their preferred influencers.

Psychotherapist Esther Perel touched on this impulse while discussing what she calls “artificial intimacy.” She says that these digital connections risk “lowering our expectations of intimacy between humans” and leave us “unprepared and unable to tolerate the inevitable unpredictabilities of human nature, love, and life.”

Putting yourself out there is uncomfortable. But I also worry that by relying mostly on social media to encounter other humans, they’re forfeiting opportunities to develop the skills that could help them thrive in the flesh-and-blood world.

“You won’t believe what I got from Shein for only $100!” The video opens with an influencer flashing perfectly manicured nails and a box bursting with clothes, accessories, and things no one actually needs.

Within minutes, thousands of comments flood in: “I need this!” “Adding to cart.” It’s consumerism served piping hot to millions of impressionable viewers who didn’t know they needed a $9 glitter bucket hat until five seconds ago.

Consumerism is the temptation we just can’t shake. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have turned buying stuff into a sport. This “haul culture” isn’t just harmless fun. It feeds the idea that more is always better and that your worth is tied to what you own. Haul videos like this are the poster children for a culture of overconsumption.

But while the world’s social media feeds scream “More, more, more!” the Gospel quietly calls for something radically countercultural: stewardship.

Possible Preaching Angle: Stewardship isn’t just about protecting the planet. It’s about managing every resource—time, money, relationships, possessions—in ways that honor God (Gen. 2:15). When our shopping carts (digital or otherwise) are overflowing with things we don’t need and can’t afford, we’ve veered off course. And when our closets look like a Forever 21 warehouse but our tithing is nonexistent? It’s time for a heart check. The issue isn’t, “Can I afford this?” It’s about remembering that everything we have—our paycheck, our possessions, our very breath—is on loan from God. When we buy mindlessly or hoard resources, we’re not just being careless. We’re saying we trust in “stuff” to bring satisfaction instead of trusting in the One who provides all we need.

The knitting needle moves quickly, back and forth, making a pattern. It’s an Instagram video in the fascinating repair genre. Similar clips show rougher work—a stonemason restoring a 900-year-old cathedral, a handyman reviving a neglected home room by room. But in this video, the task is to fix a moth-eaten sweater. In mere moments, the wool looks good as new. The hole has disappeared, the weaving so exactly matched by an unseen mender that some would take to be digital trickery, had they not shown every stitch.

These repair videos aren’t quite honest, of course. They’re practiced and edited, glossing over the less-than- perfect bits, and skipping entirely the discipline and tedium required to master a craft. On a platform that reflects so well our culture’s tendency to seek the easier option, repair videos choose the inverse.

Though we see it most obviously in social media, the consumerist tendency against repair is rooted deeply in our culture and institutions. We often see that inclination in ourselves. Children’s socks get holes, but we do not darn them. We throw them away, alongside so many other products made to be disposable or planned for quick consumption and then obsolescence.

However, repair is not always the right choice. Sometimes things really are broken beyond repair, subjected to the laws of physics, human error, and the desolation of sin. A marriage can’t be repaired when one spouse won’t repent of abuse. We can’t haul up the Titanic and send it on a second voyage.

The tendency toward repair deeply resonates with the story of salvation. In Isaiah 58, repair is a sign of the restoration of God’s blessing, of the people’s reunion with God after repentance from their sin. This theme continues into the New Testament, where Peter preaches that the time is coming “for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago” (Acts 3:21).

Does this sound familiar? You’ve read rave online reviews about a restaurant or hotel and made a reservation. Then you show up and wonder if you’re even in the same place the reviewers visited. That’s when you know: They were fake reviews.

Phony reviews make up a big percentage of the total out there—anywhere from 16% to 40%, according to some estimates. Some fakes are raves by employees, artificial-intelligence software, or people hired to wax poetic about the place. Others are negative write-ups by disgruntled ex-employees or competitors.

The problem is so widespread that the Federal Trade Commission just created a new rule that will seek civil penalties for violators who pay for fake reviews or testimonials. Meanwhile, review platforms and online travel agencies are stepping up their efforts to weed out fake reviews before they ever show up online.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The article in The Wall Street Journal continued by listing six ways to check the validity of online reviews to distinguish a fake review from a true review (such as, “look for a picture,” or “avoid extremes,” and “check the timing of the review”). But how about us? How do we tell the difference between truth and falsehood, good doctrine from bad doctrine?

Fine dining typically means splurging a little for high-quality meat or fresh seafood. But what if money were truly no object?

Restaurant owners and chefs around the world create original dining experiences for those who want unique experiences. You know, like spending nearly $10,000 on a pizza or $1,000 on an ice cream sundae.

Here are a few of the world’s most expensive meals:

• Masa — New York. Dinner Omakase menu per person: $750 sushi-eating experience.

• SubliMotion —Dubai. Dinner per person: around $2,000. That’s more than the average family will spend for an entire month on food.

• De Daltons – The Netherlands. The Golden Boy Burger: $5,532.79. Chef Robbert Jan de Veen’s “The Golden Boy” is made with 100% Wagyu A5 meat, as well as Beluga caviar, king crab, Spanish Paleta Ibérico, white truffle, and English cheddar.

• Renato Viola — Salerno, Italy. Louis XIII Pizza: $9,184.32. Pizza toppings include: mozzarella di bufala, lobster, and caviar all flown in from all different parts of the world.

• The Fortress Resort and Spa — Sri Lanka. The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence Dessert: $14,500. The dessert features Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream with a pomegranate and mango compote. The base is adorned with an 80-carat aquamarine stone.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) Salvation and The Lord's Supper—They're both offered free of charge (although Jesus paid the price that we could never have paid), and the Lord's Supper is better than anything on this list. (2) Social Justice—While millions of people are malnourished, a few people can afford outrageously expensive, luxurious meals. (3) Simplicity; Provision—God promised to provide daily bread, not daily slice of "Louis XIII" pizza. (4) Hospitality—Hospitality is more about love and openness than about trying to offer a "world's best meal." Encourage people to keep it simple.

Palmer Luckey, is a billionaire tech entrepreneur who founded Oculus and parlayed that fortune into a career as a Silicon Valley defense contractor. Luckey collects cars and he needed a place to store them. According to Forbes, when his classic car collection had outgrown his $12.5 million oceanfront mansion in Newport Beach, California, the solution was obvious: Buy the $3.8 million house across the road, demolish it, and build an elaborate 7,000 square foot building with four car elevators.

The project went smoothly — until Luckey got trapped in his own car elevator for 10 minutes. That’s according to a new lawsuit Luckey took out against the contractor responsible for building the elevator.

According to the lawsuit, this has happened more than once and led to millions of dollars in damages. Custom Cabs and construction company WT Durant, who are the defendants in the case, have denied Luckey’s allegations. Custom Cabs told Forbes that it had filed a motion to strike the lawsuit’s claims. WT Durant said it had worked with Luckey several times before this incident and that he’d never before had an issue.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Wealthy people are often tempted to spend their money indulging in luxuries and extravagant items. On the other hand, the poor are struggling more and more. They experience severe challenges like hunger, lack of housing, and inequality. This situation highlights the growing divide between the rich and the poor which is a significant issue in our society. God’s people are called to be generous and share the blessings God has given to them (Luke 6:38; 1 John 3:17)

Religious and non-religious people alike think that many people are living shallow and superficial lives. They have noticed that many are rushing through life at break-neck speeds, with little regard or thought to what they are doing. Author Pete Davis explores this issue by going back to 1986 and the improbable opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Italy:

When the burger chain opened in the Piazza di Spagna, one of the most famous squares in Rome, an outcry erupted across Italy. Thousands rallied to protest what Italians saw as the desecration of a historic center by a symbol of shallow consumerism. One of the chain's opponents, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, thought sign and angry chants were not enough to convey the depth of the protest's message. So, he went to the square and handed out bowls of pasta, a symbol of Italy's deep culinary tradition. Petrini and his compatriots shouted: “We don't want fast food. We want slow food.”

Thus, the International Slow Food movement was born, advocating not just for local cuisines but "slow and prolonged enjoyment.” The Slow Food movement spread around the world. It was perfectly timed for an era when people were beginning to notice the downsides of the global forces that had been prioritizing quantity over quality, spectacle over depth, and the fast over the slow. It felt bigger than food. It was a whole different mindset than that being served up by the global corporations of the day.

Davis ends the segment by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson and elaborates:

“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.” When there's not much underneath the surface of our superficial routines, best to move fast to distract ourselves from our shallowness. When we force ourselves to move slow again, as the Slow movement calls us to do, we confront it. The confrontation can be terrifying. But as we move through it, we can begin to rediscover depth.

More than 40% of commercials shown during the 2023 Super Bowl game featured multiple celebrities, a nearly sixfold increase from 2010. 2024’s game was no different. Many star-studded commercials featured celebrities, including a Michelob Ultra spot featuring Lionel Messi, Jason Sudeikis, and Dan Marino, and a BetMGM ad starring Tom Brady, Vince Vaughn, and Wayne Gretzky.

Brands are leaning more on celebrities because there is “so much pressure to break out,” said one branding strategist. Celebrities help advertisers get noticed and help them tap into the buzz on social media, “because people will share that sort of thing more than they will share a product story,” the strategist added.

Celebrity-free Super Bowl ads have now become a rarity: They accounted for less than a third of all commercials shown during the game in recent years. There is a downside to the approach. “There are so many celebrities appearing during the game, and it is really hard to tie the celebrity to the brand,” said the branding expert. “It’s celebrity soup.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible encourages Christians to be discerning and to think critically. So, when faced with celebrity endorsements, it's important to evaluate the claims made and to consider the motivations behind the endorsement. Christians should not blindly accept everything they see or hear, but should use their discernment to make informed decisions.

Giant companies that study us in hopes of unearthing insights that can help them sell more potato chips, laundry detergent, and lipstick have reached a conclusion that economists and pollsters have also found. We are unhappy—squeezed by inflation, troubled by global conflicts, and worried about an acrimonious election season. The companies are calibrating their pitches to entice us to open our wallets as a way of improving our collective mood.

Clorox thinks it can help with a new toilet bomb, a tablet of cleaner that foams and fizzes in the toilet bowl and releases a pleasant scent. “People are looking for a spark of fun and joy,” said Clorox’s general manager of cleaning. “We all know the world can get messy, but we understand the link between a clean environment and one’s physical and emotional well-being.”

As part of what Clorox calls a “consumer-obsessed” approach, staffers started using artificial-intelligence tools to scan digital media for new ideas. The Foaming Toilet Bomb is its first product from this initiative.

Procter & Gamble combs societal trends to select a scent of the year. So, P&G declared “Romance & Desire” its scent of the year, and bequeathed it to anxious Americans in the form of new Febreze air fresheners with a fragrance of pink rose petals and champagne spritz. The product line is intended to offer a sensory reminder of the importance of human connection, the company said.

As 29-year-old Neha Wright checked her mailbox and brought in the latest batch of bills, she realized the moment had finally arrived: Her childhood love of receiving a letter in the mail had officially been replaced with a very adult fear of receiving a letter in the mail.

Neha’s parents recall that as a kid, she would teem with excitement when she got a letter addressed to her and would run to open it. Neha’s mother said, “Most of the time it was something boring like a postcard from a cousin or a school paper. She’d check the mailbox every evening after school if she knew a letter was on the way.”

Now that she’s reached adulthood, seeing a letter in the mail sends a chill down Neha’s spine, and its sort of up in the air whether she will open it at all. She continued, “It’s almost always my electric bill or a notice from my bank, two of the scariest things a girl can receive. I’m pretty sure that if I don’t open it, I can’t be legally held responsible for the contents!”

According to her bank, this is untrue, but when reporters tried to inform Neha of this, she simply closed her eyes, held her hands over her ears, and said, “Lalalalalalala.”

Neha said, “It’s hard to imagine there was once a time where I loved receiving mail, because it meant $20 from my grandparents. Imagine opening mail and gaining money? That must’ve been awesome!”

Neha’s adulthood disdain for mail does not, however, apply to packages, which have retained their childlike wonder. If anything, Neha’s joy at receiving a package has only grown. “Oh, yeah, letters and packages are very different,” Neha continued. “Letters are scary and packages are tiny little glimmers of hope that carry things like clothing and skincare products. I’m super pro-package.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Obviously, this is a humorous, but not so hypothetical, situation. How many of us overspend during the holidays, or put an expensive trip on our credit card, only to be shocked when the bill arrives whether by mail or email?

We used to have a short Halloween season, a nice slow-paced Thanksgiving, and then around mid-November we'd see Christmas stuff out for sale. Well, now these three events are getting mashed together in what one author calls a "HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza."

Ellyn von Huben notes, "I've noticed that so much of society's sense of holiday celebrations has been condensed that it is hard to even see what holiday we are headed toward."

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story (and her wonderful new word to describe this season) provides a great way to help your congregation slow down, take a deep breath, and focus on Christ and the true meaning of Advent, which Von Huben defines at "The time in which we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Our Lord made flesh to dwell among us."

In his book, The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt confirms our worst fears about what happened to Generation Z, the first generation to go through puberty with constant access to the internet. He writes, “… it was not merely that playing and socializing had shifted to phones, tablets, and gaming consoles but that real-life pleasures and risks were also disappearing: rough-and-tumble outdoor activities, opportunities for physical independence, unsupervised recreation.”

Free play had been in retreat and technology on the march since the 1980s. But it took the invention of the smartphone to complete the mutation of childhood from “play-based” to “phone-based.” He writes, "… giving smartphones to young people en masse constitutes the largest uncontrolled experiment humanity has ever performed on its own children.”

While all this was happening, parents (who were hypnotized by their phones, too) were hearing about, and sometimes seeing at home, children succumbing to real distress—depression, anxiety, self-harm, even suicide.

Starting in about 2010, suicide rates for young adolescents in the U.S. shot up (increasing 91% for boys ages 10-14 and 167% for girls). The rate of self-injury almost tripled between 2010 and 2020.

Ironically, the creation of social media—with their promise of “connectedness”—has left young people lonelier and with fewer friends. For girls, the apps have proved toxic, Mr. Haidt writes: “Social media use does not just correlate with mental illness; it causes it …. The phone-based life produces spiritual degradation … in all of us."

The number of Americans carrying a credit card balance is climbing, with many using their credit to cover unexpected or emergency expenses, a new Bankrate report reveals.

The share of credit card holders that carry a balance has increased to 49%—up from 39% in 2021. This is likely due to the increased cost of credit card debt over the past two years. The average interest rate has climbed from an average of 16.45% in 2021 to 24.37% as of March 2024 according to Investopedia.

Of those with credit card debt, 43% say they carry a balance because of an unexpected or emergency expense, most commonly medical bills or car and home repairs. However, financial experts don’t recommend financing these costs with your credit card, if you can help it.

Credit cards tend to have high interest rates compared with other types of loans, which makes them a terrible option for debt financing. This is why experts recommend keeping your outstanding balance at $0 each month, if possible.

Paying only the monthly minimum payment is better than nothing. However, those payments only cover a fraction of the balance owed. The longer you take to pay the balance, the more interest you’ll be charged, since it accrues daily.

Bad news, your car is a spy. If your vehicle was made in the last few years, you’re probably driving around in a data-harvesting machine that may collect personal information as sensitive as your race, weight, and sexual activity. Volkswagen’s cars reportedly know if you’re fastening your seatbelt and how hard you hit the brakes.

That’s according to new findings from Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project. The nonprofit found that every major car brand fails to adhere to the most basic privacy and security standards in new internet-connected models. Mozilla found brands including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, and Subaru collect data about drivers including race, facial expressions, weight, health information, and where you drive. Some of the cars tested collected data you wouldn’t expect your car to know about, including details about sexual activity, race, and immigration status, according to Mozilla.

Jen Caltrider of the *Privacy Not Included project said,

Many people think of their car as a private space — somewhere to call your doctor, have a personal conversation with your kid on the way to school, cry your eyes out over a break-up, or drive places you might not want the world to know about. But that perception no longer matches reality. All new cars today are privacy nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information.

Modern cars use a variety of data harvesting tools including microphones, cameras, and the phones drivers connect to their cars. Manufacturers also collect data through their apps and websites, and can then sell or share that data with data brokers, law enforcement, and other third parties.

Possible Preaching Angle:

If this causes concern for every car owner and passenger because of the constant observation of our actions, imagine how aware we should be of God’s attention to all of our words, thoughts, and actions.

For some shoppers, the upcoming holiday season may lead to piling on more debt. About 25% of Americans are still paying off holiday debt from 2022, according to WalletHub.

But those already carrying a balance could find themselves sinking further into the red if they don’t get a handle on their credit card debt. “If you’re in a hole, stop digging,” says Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst.

One reason you may want to avoid racking up more debt is that higher interest rates are making it more expensive to pay down. As of November, the average credit card interest rate has risen from around 16% to nearly 21%. This is due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in March 2020 in an effort to combat inflation.

A higher interest rate means it could take longer and be more expensive to pay down your credit card debt. Rossman says, “Even a more modest $1,000 balance (from last year’s holiday gifts, perhaps) would keep someone in debt for 40 months and cost them $390 in interest if they only make minimum payments at [the current average rate of] 20.72%.”

Should consumers who worry about the origins of their clothing, coffee, and chocolate focus on a more spiritual item: the Bible? Chances are good that your favorite Bible was printed in China. The over-whelming majority of Bibles sold are printed there, said Mark Bertrand of Bible Design Blog. He said: “A lot of people have misgivings about that. Some of it is, ‘Oh, our Bibles are printed in Communist China.’ Others are concerned about the economic situation, about what conditions these Bibles were produced under.”

The Chinese government’s restriction of Bible distribution is also troubling, said ChinaAid’s Bob Fu. “When brothers and sisters are being persecuted and arrested for their beliefs based on the same Bible, what does it mean to purchase an exported copy that says Made in China?”

China’s only legal printer of Bibles, Amity Printing Company, published its first Bible in cooperation with the United Bible Societies in 1987. Since then, more than half of the 100 million Bibles printed every year have been printed in China (50 million in 2019), making China the world’s biggest Bible publisher.

Printing Bibles is more difficult than printing other types of books, and requires a certain amount of expertise. That’s because of the specialized printing requirements for a complex book such as the Bible. Bibles require thin paper that cannot be fed into standard printing equipment, leather covers, stitched binding, color pages and special inserts such as maps. Most printers outside China do not have the range of facilities to manufacture the same Bibles.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Maybe Westerners seeing “Made in China” on their Bibles, can be a reminder to pray for those who made these Bibles. 2) God can use any instrument he chooses to spread his Word, even unbelieving, communist China (Isa. 55:11).

Pets these days are living more luxurious lives than ever as humans increasingly pour money into making their properties fetching for nonhuman family members. For instance, Robbie Timmers went all-out adding a contemporary-style house on his property in Thailand. White with chic black trim, the two-story, air-conditioned abode has security cameras, smart lighting, and a sliding door to the porch. Mr. Timmers would have added a swimming pool, too, but his wife objected. Her reasoning? It seemed unnecessary for the home’s intended occupants: the couple’s five dogs.

Mr. Timmers love his dogs’ house, but he adds, “I have to be honest, my dogs never set foot in the house,” says Mr. Timmers, who spent about $10,000 on it. The mini-house mostly sits empty. “It has everything,” he adds. “Just no dogs.”

Then there’s Doug the Pug, a lovable pooch whose penchant for wearing elaborate costumes has earned him over one billion viewers across social-media platforms. At the Nashville, Tennessee home Doug shares with his owners, the pug has his own 15-foot closet for his outfits, including tiny cowboy hats, cashmere sweaters, a rainbow of sunglasses, custom harnesses from London, and a Boda Skins leather jacket.

Among other perks, Doug also only drinks purified water at home and routinely sees a canine herbalist and acupuncturist.

Possible Preaching Angles:

This is extreme, but are we excessively spending on the things that don’t ultimately matter?

A Wall Street Journal article begins with this story about the increased debt load many Americans are carrying:

Danielle Smith and her family thought they had finally escaped the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle they had fallen into. They saved money during the pandemic while they were stuck at home. They used stimulus checks to chip away at $20,000 in credit card debt and enjoyed a reprieve from monthly payments on their $160,000 in student loans.

Lately, they have been hit with one unexpected expense after another, from an out-of-pocket MRI to a broken water heater. They also took trips with their four children that they had put off because of Covid, including to Walt Disney World, local museums, and the zoo. By 2022, their credit-card debt had doubled to nearly $40,000. Ms. Smith said, “It’s just a never-ending cycle of playing catch-up.”

The article noted that American millennials in their 30s have racked up debt at a historic clip since the pandemic. Their total balances hit more than $3.8 trillion in the fourth quarter, a 27% jump from late 2019. That is the steepest increase of any age group. It is also their fastest pace of debt accumulation over a three-year period since the 2008 financial crisis.